<p>I was at basketball game for first time. In Atlanta, Hawks… When the rival goes for a free throw, the crowd goes wild and is encouraged by the announcers…and then if rival makes it, it’s a silent silent thing. And if they don’t, it subdues slower… But why is there noise in the first place? Especially considering that there’s a good chance of hitting a free throw when you’re in the NBA…</p>
<p>They make noise to distract the free throw shooter. The noise is all about throwing off concentration–hence why they stay silent for the Home team.</p>
<p>Rationally, the OP is wise to observe that the noise has very little impact on an NBA star at the free-throw line. Even Shaquille O’Neal, a notoriously horrible free-throw shooter, is probably not affected by the noise (he’s going to miss the shot no matter what!).</p>
<p>At NBA games, the noise is a way to engage the fans. It makes fans feel like part of the game and helps them feel like they are contributing in some way.</p>
<p>Fans do make a difference. They can get the home team energized. They can help put seeds of doubt in the visiting team as the home team makes a run. But rarely does a home crowd have the ability to affect NBA players negatively on something as routine for them as a free throw. The screaming is basically “white noise” to the NBA free throw shooter.</p>
<p>So, in the NBA, the fans scream because it feels good and is fun. And the announcer urges them on because it helps the bottom-line to have fans who identify with the home team and it makes the game experience more entertaining…and worth repeating. You’re right, however, to note that it’s probably not very effective.</p>
<p>It would be more effective to suddenly shout or make noise during a jump shot or a guarded shot…when the player is not doing something very routine. But then how do you get an entire arena of fans to coordinate such a cheer? Which is another reason they do it during free throws: because they can.</p>
<p>At some colleges – where the students can cheer/shout in more organized ways – the students sometimes use unexpected silence to unnerve the free throw shooter. So it’s not the noise, but the ability to unnerve and break the concentration of the player that’s the key. You’re just not going to see that in the NBA – because the fans are totally disorganized and the players far too experienced.</p>
<p>In other sports well-timed noisemaking can disrupt audible communications among players on the visiting team and that could help alter the course of play. But obviously that’s not a component of free throw shooting.</p>
<p>Well if it’s supposed to “distract” them when they cheer for the rival going for the free throw, wouldn’t that mean it’d be good to not do “Let’s go Hawks!”? And if general free throw percentage is 70% (made up) wouldn’t it be better to lose 1% in accuracy of the free throw as a result of cheering and gain even more acclaim after making the ball (in addition to if they were to cheer like I would).</p>
<p>The solution is obvious: Calculus.</p>
<p>I have no idea what your point is here, particularly the part about gaining “even more acclaim after making the ball.”</p>
<p>Clearly, this is a question for Mike: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=227770[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=227770</a></p>
<p>I mean, the crowd knows that the rival is likely going to make it, and there’s no research to prove that they’re being distracted. If they can shoot from the hectic court with music, they can shoot at the free throw line with cheering.</p>
<p>So why not direct all of that cheering to the home team?</p>
<p>It’s not cheering. It’s noise.</p>
<p>No. It’s electric.</p>
<p>Don’t you wonder how guys making millions of dollars a year can MISS free throws in the first place. No one’s in your face, you’re standing still, you could practice the exact same motion over and over… ???</p>
<p>Well throughout the game you get pretty tired I would imagine so it’s not like just shooting them over and over in practice. Also if you’re at the free throw line it’s because you got fouled, so you do get beat up a little throughout the game, there’s just a lot more factors than you would imagine. But I think you’re right that free throw percentage should be higher in general especially for someone like Shaq.</p>
<p>astrophysicsmom, do you play basketball. </p>
<p>That is like saying, why don’t baseball players hit a home run every time.</p>
<p>I think that’s a little harsh dank, homeruns come in a much lower percentage than free throws, and they are also very different things to compare. I do play basektball, and I see where she is coming from, and it is true players paid millions of dollars to do nothing but play basketball should be able to make unguarded shots.</p>
<p>besides, you DO have opposition to hit a home run. the pitcher is trying to throw the ball in a way to make it as hard as possible for you to hit a home run, and the throw would be different every time, so there is no single movement that would guarentee success each time. in a free throw, however, you have no opposition whatsoever, and the same mechanical movment WOULD guarantee success every time.</p>
<p>Then again, look at the homerun derby before the All-Star game each year. They have a warm-up pitcher toss them a baseball right into their “hot spot” or “wheelhouse” – exactly the kinds of pitches that they prefer – and even though there’s no penalty for not swinging, even at a perfect strike, the best HR hitters in all of baseball do quite average. And I’m referring to the overall winners. There are many others who, even under those conditions, fail to get but 1 or2 before they reach 10 non home-run swings. Even a machine can’t repeat a pitch exactly. And striking a small moving object with a thin moving club is one of the most difficult feats in sport, requiring many adjustments and corrections within each swing even in practice. </p>
<p>A better example might be a golfer and a 5 foot putt…or a tee shot onto a Par 3 green…or some other repetitive motion exercise. How about bowling? Why not 300 games each and every outing?</p>
<p>True, that an NBA star should have an incredibly high free throw percentage because it is easier than throwing a strike in bowling. But I still say (though I don’t think anyone’s disagreed with this) I don’t think that even the worst free throw shooters are impaired by crowd noise – so that there % of free throws suffers from the noise. But that’s hard to prove. I’m sure plenty of players perform better at home than away…but is it because of noise or other factors?</p>
<p>I love screaming and waving those obnoxious blow-up things when people are at the free-throw line. Even if it only forces someone to miss a free throw once every few games, that could be the one point that the other team needs.</p>
<p>Crowd noise is just part of the experience and players do hear it. The better ones block it out and focus on the shot. It does effect a player’s composure sometimes. </p>
<p>Yes, you would think that NBA players would have no problem with free throws, but some really struggle. They tend to be the very muscluar players. A free throw takes a softer touch than some have. The Shack’s, the Ben Wallace’s and others play a more physical game than say a Ray Allen. That strength makes it hard to have alot of touch on the ball.</p>
<p>Yeah, not everyone’s going to have the percentage Steve Nash has. Besides, taking a shot in practice is vastly different than taking one in a game. I usually forgot about the crowd about 2 minutes after tip-off, but it’s still a lot of pressure. Noise never bothered me either…like I said, I just got in the zone after a few minutes and forgot all about anyone that wasn’t on the court. I’d suspect that most of the guys in the NBA get in a zone as well.</p>
<p>I do think it’s pretty pathetic when their percentage is hovering around 50 and lower, though…but hey, they’re still getting paid buttloads of money so it doesn’t really matter.</p>
<p>Part of the problem is that pugfug was at a Hawks game. No offense but the Hawks are a gawdawful basketball team. You need to check out a game where the team is good and actually have a fan base. The Mavs, Spurs, Suns, Pistons, Lakers, or even the Rockets would have a more wild crowd that would be more enjoyable than the Hawks.</p>
<p>Does that have anything to do with the crowd going nuts over the opposing team at the free throw line?</p>